Minnesota Wild (1-2)
2.90 Goals For (8th)
2.90 Goals Against (10th)
13.8% Power Play (10th)
84.8% Penalty Kill (7th)
52.5% Faceoffs (3rd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 4G 9A = 13pts
2. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 1G 7A = 8pts
3. #64 Mikael Granlund ~ 4G 3A = 7pts
4. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 3G 3A = 6pts
5. #21 Kyle Brodziak ~ 3G 3A = 6pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #4 Clayton Stoner ~ 24 PIM’s
2. #8 Cody McCormick ~ 14 PIM’s
3. #39 Nate Prosser ~ 12 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (3-1-1) 2.03GAA .913SV% 1SO
2. #30 Ilya Bryzgalov (2-4-1) 3.09GAA .860SV% 1SO
Vs.
Chicago Blackhawks (2-1)
3.22 Goals For (3rd)
2.33 Goals Against (3rd)
17.9% Power Play (8th)
91.9% Penalty Kill (1st)
52.5% Faceoffs (2nd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #19 Jonathan Toews ~ 4G 5A = 9pts
2. #7 Brent Seabrook ~ 2G 7A = 9pts
3. #88 Patrick Kane ~ 5G 3A = 8pts
4. #29 Bryan Bickell ~ 5G 3A = 8pts
5. #81 Marian Hossa ~ 2G 6A = 8pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #7 Brent Seabrook ~ 15 PIM’s
2. #52 Brandon Bollig ~ 12 PIM’s
3. #88 Patrick Kane ~ 8 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #50 Corey Crawford (6-3-2) 1.99GAA .929%SP 1SO
So while we as Wild fans were celebrating an amazing four-goal output in the third period as well as a shutout Tuesday night, the yellow journalism machine cranked up in the Windy City. Perhaps, we should just call them the Windbag City (I’m sure they’ve never heard that one). Yes, that’s sarcasm. Wild fans know exactly what I’m talking about. Chicago fans might be a bit more oblivious, or maybe just willingly ignorant. This classic example of yellow journalism comes out of the Chicago Tribune. The so-called writer, Steve Rosenbloom, pulled out the old excuses and finger-pointing of the Wild playing the “boring” clogged-up neutral zone game. Hey Steve, last I looked it takes two teams to play a game. If the Wild were so “boring” why didn’t Chicago and its star-studded line-up liven things up? Oh that’s right, they got out-worked, and by a Wild-card team no less. And since when has four goals scored by one team in a single period constitute as “boring.” I forgot, it wasn’t the Blackhawks that scored those four goals. I swear, the writer’s in Chicago didn’t know what to say or explain what happened, so they decided to recycle a similar article from 2002 or so and just changed the names involved. The Minnesota Wild will never shake the “boring” adjective. We could be the highest scoring team in the league, and the writers around the league will trot out the same drivel. Lucky us. The truth of the matter, is that what the yellow journalism machine drummed up is the result of one thing. Sour grapes. And here’s a little picture to best describe those whiners, I mean writers:
One thing the Blackhawks are going to have to contend with, is the return of Matt Cooke. Tonight is his first game back after his seven-game suspension for kneeing Tyson Barrie in Game 3 of Round One. One thing I was afraid of, is that with Cooke’s return, one of our hard-working young players like Erik Haula would get benched. Well it turns out that Matt Moulson has been playing “injured” (whatever that means exactly, we don’t know), so it was an easy decision who to take out of the game. With Cooke back in, the Wild just got faster, tougher, harder working, and more willing to score. He’s been extremely proud of the hard work and results of his teammates, and you can pretty much be sure he’s chomping at the bit and is ready to go. For a team like Minnesota who often struggles to score, they should be more offensively-minded. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to have another player back on the ice with Stanley Cup winning experience.
There are certainly times you wish you had the coach’s ear. I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing more I want to see than a top line of Haula, Zach Parise and Nino Niederreiter. It would be a fast, fast line. As the old saying goes, speed kills. Compared to Colorado, Chicago seems much slower. If you would ice a line with some serious jets, just imagine the offense it could create. Plus as we’ve seen recently, both Haula and Niederreiter are willing to shoot and want to score. Plus, Niederreiter isn’t afraid of a little dirt. Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll ever seen such a line and that’s truly sad. If the thought hasn’t crossed Mike Yeo’s mind, then I seriously question his hockey smarts. Sadly, I think while he’s thought of it, he doesn’t dare risk some fragile egos that are probably at play. For whatever reason, he insists on keeping Mikko Koivu on the top line, when he’s not a top line player on just about every other team in the league. So in the meantime, we’re just going to have to continue to watch Haula and Niederreiter on whatever hard-working line they’re put on.
So here we go. Game 4. I don’t know about you, but I am beyond ready for Minnesota to even up this series. To shut up the critics about how one-sided this series was going to be. And to get the “boring” propagandists up in arms again. And here’s the newest plaque being installed at the Chicago Tribune.
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